The space was vibrant with young dancers in their mid twenties. Fifty people stopped chatting at the same time and turned their heads in the direction of Ohad Naharin who had just entered. I found myself contemplating whether there were “rock stars” in the contemporary dance world. Seconds later, the atmosphere electric, I was left in no doubt, I had just witnessed one.
Five minutes into the class and I began to feel worried. As the class slowly developed I found I was out of my comfort zone. Little by little I was forced to question my previous understanding of dance technique and old habits. Ohad started the class with multitasking layers of which the Gaga movement consists. He alerted each dancer to explore his body movement and to add the new material to what we had already learned during our previous dance education.
The following were some of the prompts and suggestions during the class:
• Being available for things to pass through you.
• Pelvis follows the leg while doing a tendu.
• Doing less with a big engine: imagine a Porsche driving at 30km/h, it’s different to a scooter driving at 30 km/h.
• Explore your hands by touch, feel in between your fingers.
• Explore your legs, move your leg while touching the calf.
• Loving arm, move your hand with your heart.
• Spine moving, floating in water.
• Bones floating inside the flesh.
• Playing with tensed and floating movement.
• Being tensed while floating.
• Dancing with joy.
We were guided on a journey to discover the sensuality of the body. The same importance was attached to exaggerating the movement as was to keeping things simple. You just need to make the conscious choice. We moved between being calm, listening to our bodies and getting excited. We laughed and then laughed even harder.
Not only do you need a chance to achieve something but you need to grab it despite your internal objections.
The information we received during the 1h and 15 minutes was overwhelming. It was a beginning. A concentrated wealth of information to be expanded upon.